Vijay Dutt
The Gujarati community in Britain that calls him Chhota Sardar, is apparently confident of the rise and rise of Narendra Modi and he did not disappoint his admirers when he spoke most eloquently at the Wembley Conference Hall in the style reminiscent of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Modi is currently in London to promote "Vibrant Gujarat Initiative" for attracting global investors in the state.
The Wembley meeting organised by the Friends of Gujarat proved to be the ideal forum for the Gujarat Chief Minister to talk of the strengths and development of his state and the role he wished the Gujaratis the world over would play in making Gujarat level up with "the most progressive states in the world of the 21st century".
In apparently a very spirited mood and least affected by 200 odd demonstrators shouting slogan and waving placards that named him Idi" Amin" and "butcher of Gujarat", Modi drew rounds of prolonged cheering from a highly enthused 3000 strong audience.
They left convinced that they were in the presence of a possible future prime minister; Modi must have been convinced that he had got a strong contingent of stormy-troopers.
He said at the outset that he would never talk against the country. He considered it as a sin and said that his secular credentials were doubted by some who did not understand his efforts to build a strong Gujarat and a 21st century India.
But his visit to the UK has drawn a lot of flak from some sections of the media. A relative of the British citizen who allegedly died during riots in Gujarat was also reportedly interviewed on television. But Modi has been quite circumspect and convincing in countering the attacks on him.
He said that nothing, not even a threat to his life, would deter him from finishing the merchants of death in his state. He did not name them nor did he say as to where they come from, but accused Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism, of disrupting the Indian economy and causing friction between different communities.
He cited the incident in Bangalore where a car with bombs in it was driven near a church with clear signs that a Hindu organisation was behind the plan. But in reality, the organisation responsible for it was based in Pakistan.
Fake currencies and drug mafia are also being used in the proxy war, he declared. The audience was left in no doubt as to the identity of the instigators of riots.
His mathematical quote "IT Plus IT is equal to IT" went down very well with the people. " Information technology plus Indian talent is equal to India tomorrow".
His friends and admirers in Britain are quite convinced that in the India of tomorrow, Modi is destined to play the lead role. He has gained a large number of supporters for his state development plans and possibly for his own journey towards the top of the political ladder.
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